Grain blender



1943- 5 E. EVANS 2,455,572

GRAIN BLENDER Filed July 8, 1948 2 SheetseSheot 1 Dec. 7,1948. R EV NS 2,455,572

GRAIN BLENDER Filed July 8, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l i m i aw an 2 BIN/3 am /4- 50v Ii Ell/l0 Patented Dec. 7, 1948 omcs GRAIN BLENDER- Earl. K; Evans, Urbana; Ill.

Application July 8-, 1948, Serial No. 37,591

"7: Glaims.

This invention; relates: to a. blending device for fluent materials. The invention is: more particul'arly concennedbwi'tlr a device for blending dry materials such as grains and seeds which are capable? of fiowingmnderthe forces of gravity. Grains; beans and? other agricultural products ae welllr as other dry; fluent materialsarecom-- mon'lyr receivedv atalcentral receivingstation from alplurality'oii producersor sources. The character" oil thesagricultural products or other fluent materials: may vary widely in factors which detiemnineithe:commerciallgrade or utility: of 'thpro ducts. WhEflHFSBIVGSi as anexcell'en't example or theitype ofifiuent materiali with. which this in Venti-on: finds; utilitm. There are several factors Whichrare usediinr testing wheat to'determine its relative value. These factors include weightper bushel or, grain, moiaturencontent, protein content, thepecentage-of broken grains, the amount ofnsmutty grain: and the: amount of chafli. mixed! with the wheatl 'll'h-et wheat" is customarily graded as received acoordiing tothe' above or other factors It. is notpractical however: to store or shin-eachi original: lot separately and to thereby: retain its: exact; original quality during' storage on shipment. Itis the; usual. practice to combine several lots org-original receipts into: one or more larger "lots in storage bins or in transportation vehicles Theoriginal lots may not be entirely uniform within themselves and: particularly" after original lots are: mingled or mixed; it is; found that theywheatl thewcombined lot being? sent to: storage or transportation lacks: uniformilty ands is of uneven quality fromplace to: place within: the lot. For exampley az particularlot of wheat may containfispotw of wheat which is 01E 0011- sidenahlm poorer or considerably better quality tham theavenage; qualityof the: entire lot. The lctrrnayalso-contain a spot* in w-hich the wheat has a moisture: content. much greaterthan the average moistu-recontent: of= the entire lot and this concentration of moisture adversely aifects' the keeping. qualitiesof: thegrain It will be obvious thatif allot-of grain" is tested at one of the. spots. which is not characteristic of theaverage qualityof the grain in the lot, theresults oi the test will belinaccurate and the entire? lot of wheat. will be graded too low or too high: 170 the. disadvantage ofeither the seller or, the buyer. invention provides, a device for blendin'gr a2 volume of grain or other: fluent materials; of varying character to obtain substantial unia fiormity. throughout, the volumeof grain or other material. The grain may be: tested after blendetest willgive: a substantially true adversely aifect thoserkeeping qualities.

2 t t l i indication of. the: character or: quality of" theaemi-u tirevolume. The: keeping qualities, ofqgraimare; also improved: by; eliminating: spots havingi sir-- cessiue: moisturezcontent orother factors: which A primary, object of: the invention; is: to provide:

a; device for blending; grains; and other agricul tural products (or: other fiuent materials to obtain: a: maximum of, uniformity: in the blended" mar-l 126F121; Axf'urtheru object of my invention is to:

providea device for; the purposes indicated? which requires no power for its; operation and which, has; no: moving mechanical parts except the control for: the discharge outlet. Further objects and. advantages ofv the: invention will be referred to in the following, detailed: description which has: reference to the accompanying drawings: Wrhemin:

Figure 1* is a perspective, View of a blending device; constructed inzaccordancewiththe present;

invention, a portion of the device being showzr broken away;

Figure: 2: is: a top plan view of. the: device;

Figure; 3 is asectiona-l View looking in therdi' rectionr of? the arrows along; the. line 3--3 of; Figure 2:5 and! Figure 4 is: a development in a plane of the upper; portion of the wall ofithe central receiving. compartmentmofithe:device;

The walls; 5: form a tubularreceiving compartment 6 which is disposed centrally of the device; Anouter' cylindrical shell 1: surrounds the receiving compartment (ii. Theannular space between the receiving compartment 8" andithe' outer shelil I: is subdivided into a plurality of bins by means of partitions. The partitions extend: radially fnomthe. outer surface of the walls 5:

t of the: receiving compartment" 5 but the angles between adjacent partitions. are not uniform.

For convenience: the bins are designated by'the reference numerals: I50; H, IE2; I13, M and i5! The partitions I8 and? IT form an ang1e0f'50 degrees with each other and define the sides of the: bin; I0. The bi'nl H hasi'tssides defined by the: partitions: I11 and I8 which form an angle of, Z0.- degrees: with each other. The partitions I8 and I9 whiiclmform an angle of degreeswith each: other: forum the sides of the bin 12 while the; partitions ll9- and 20* form an angle of 50 degrees with. each! other and form the sides: of the-bin? or. one bin l 4 has its sides formed by partitions 20% andifl 1 and theangle between those partitions is degreesr "I'he'bin fi lies-between tha partitions IE and fl whichform an angle of 6wdegreeswvithr each other. The significance of partitions It to 2| inclusive extend below the lower edge of the shell I as well as below the cylindrical portion of the receiving compartment 6 and terminate in the interior of the hopper 24.

This arrangement is best illustarted in Figure 3 of the drawings.

The device may be supported by any suitable means such as the bracket 28 of a weighing mechanism, not shown. The material of varying character which is to be blended may be supplied to the receiving compartment 6 by means of an outlet 30 of an elevator or garner.

The grain or other material being discharged through the elevator or garner outlet 30 will initially fall through the receiving compartment 6, through the opening 23 and into the lower portion of the hopper 24. The material will accumulate in the bottom of the hopper 24 until it reaches a certain'level depending somewhat upon the character of the material. Thereference numeral 31 designates an exemplary level to which the material may rise in hopper 24 before flow through the opening 23 ceases and the grain begins to accumulate within the receiving compartment 6.

There are openings in the walls 5 of the receiving compartment 6 which communicate with each of the bins Hi to I5 inclusive. These openings are at different elevations so that one of the bins begins to fill first and the filling of the other bins begins successively one by one; The material will rise in the receivingcompartment 6 until it reaches the elevation of opening 32 which communicates with the bin l3. The bin 13 then begins to fill through the opening 32. As soon as bin l3 fills to the level of opening 32, the material being fed to the receiving compartment 6 will again rise until the material reaches the elevation of the opening 33 whereupon the material will discharge through that opening into the bin If]. It will be noticed that bins l and I3 are diametrically opposite each other. Since these are the first two bins to fill, it will be apparent that the device does not become greatly unbalr anced as would be the case if adjacent bins were among the first tobe filled. The upper level of the material in the receiving compartment 6 continues to rise until it reaches the elevation of the opening 34 which communicates with the bin [2 and the bin 12 begins to fill. When the material again rises in' the compartment 6 the upper level reaches the elevation of the opening 35 which communicates with the bin l5. The bin l begins filling at this time and since it is diametrically opposite the bin I2 the substantial balance of the device is maintained.

The upper level of thematerial' in the compartment 6 continues to rise until it reaches the elevation of the opening 36 which communicates with the bin H and that bin begins filling. The bin I4 is the last to begin filling and this occurs when the upper level of the material in the compartment 6 reaches the elevation of the opening 31,. .The bins II and 14 are diametrically opposite each other and since these are the last two bins to begin filling the substantial balance of the device is maintained.

There is an additional opening 38 near the upper end of the compartment 6 which communicates with the bin l3 and there is a similarly positioned opening 39 which communicates with the bin l0. Additional material may thus be discharged into these two bins in the event that they have not already been filled to the elevation of the opening 38 and 39. It will be seen that the upper end of the receiving compartment 6 is positioned somewhat below the upper end of the shell 1 so that some additional material may be permitted to overflow the upper edges of the receiving compartment 6 and this overflowing material will round out the bins surrounding the compartment.

The weight of material within the device may be ascertained by means of scales to which the bracket 28 may be attached or of which the device may be an integral part. The-gate 21 is then opened and the material will discharge by gravity through the discharge outlet 26. The material within the receiving compartment'fi and the material within the surrounding bins will discharge simultaneously and the material'irom these several sources will become intimately mixed and blended so that the material issuing from the discharge outlet 26 will be substantially uniform in character. The blending appears to be primarily due to the fact that the bins have been filled during different intervals of time coupled with the fact that these bins are discharged simultaneously into the hopper 24 where they combine to form a single discharge stream.

It has been explained above that the bins I0 and it each occupy 50 degrees of the circumference of the device. These two bins are thus smaller than the other bins and since they are the first to fill it is possible to fill these bins with less bulk than would be the case if the bins were larger and therefore any given amount of grain or other material will fill more compartments than would be possible if all of the bins were of equal size. By this arrangement it is possible to obtain a greater number of subdivisions from a quantity of material less than the full capacity of the device. A greater number of subdivisions of any given quantity of material contributes to greater uniformity of the resulting blend. It is satisfactory in some instances to make the bins of uniform size.

I have illustrated and described what I now consider to be the preferred form of my invention. However it will be understood that the device which I have specifically illustrated and described is exemplary only and that various modifications may be resorted to without departing from the invention in its broader aspects as defined by the following claims.

Having thus described my invention I claim:

1. A blending device for fluent material comprising a compartment for receiving fluent material of varying character, a plurality of bins positioned around and adjacent said receiving compartment, said compartment and said bins being open at their lower ends, a downwardly tapered hopper positioned beneath said receiving compartment and said bins and iorming a closure for the lower end of said device, there be-. ing openings at different elevations in the wall of said compartment communicating, with dif ferent of said bins to permit fluent material'ln through saidopenings, a discharge outlet in the lower end of said hopper, andmeans for controlling discharge through said outlet.

2. A blender for fluent materialscomprising a compartment for receiving fluent material of varying character, a plurality of bins positioned adjacentsaid receiving compartment and} communicating with said receiving compartment through openings in the walls thereof, said jopenings being positioned at different elevations to cause the different bins to receive fluent majterial from said receiving compartment at different times in accordance with the height of fluent material accumulated in said receiving compartment, the arrangement of said openings being such that all of said bins do not receive material simultaneously from said compartment through said openings, said receiving compartment and said adjacent bins all communicating at their lower ends with a blending hopper having a discharge outlet, and means for controlling the discharge of fluent material from said outlet.

3. A blending device for fluent materials comprising compartment walls forming a compartment for receiving fluent material of varying character, shell walls spaced outwardly from said compartment walls and forming an outer shell,

ing from said compartment walls to said shell walls dividing the space therebetween into a plurality of bins, there being openings at different elevations in the wall of said compartment communicating withdifierent of said bins to permit fluent material in said compartment to discharge into different bins as the level of such material rises in said compartment, the arrangement of said openings being such that all of said bins partitions extending from said compartment walls to said shell walls and dividing the space there.- between into a plurality of bins, there beingopenings at different elevations in the wall of said compartment communicating with difierent of said bins to permit fluent material in said compartment to discharge into difierent bins as the which said partitions extend below the lower edge of the walls of said shell and terminate in said hopper. i

5. A blending device for fluent materials comprising compartment walls forming a central fluent material receiving compartment which tapers at its lower end, shell walls forming a shell surrounding said compartment, partitions extend donot receive material simultaneously from said compartment through said openings, a downwardly tapering hopper secured to the lower edge of said shell, said partitions and the tapered lower end of said compartment extending into said hopper, a discharge outlet in the lowerend of said hopper, and control means for controlling discharge of fluent material from said outlet.

6. A blending device for fluent material comprising a vertically disposed central tubular member forming a compartment for receiving fluent material of varying character, a vertically disposed tubular shell surroundin said tubular member and being of substantially reater diameter than said tubular member, partitions radiating from said tubular member to said tubular shell dividing the annular space therebetween into a plurality of bins, there being openings at different elevations in the wall of said tubular membercommunicating with different of said bins to permit fluent material in said compartment to discharge into diiferent bins as the level of such material rises in said compartment, the arrangement of said openings being such that all of said bins do not receive material simultaneously from said compartment through said openings, a downwardly tapering hopper having its upper edge secured to the lower edge of said tubular shell, a discharge outlet in the lower end of said hopper, and means for controlling discharge throughsaid outlet. 1

7. A blending device as described in claim 6 in which said partitions extend below the lower edge of said tubular shell into said hopper.

EARL R. EVANS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent;

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date l,l4;5,2l5 Roney July 6, 1915 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 29,575 Australia Oct. 15, 1930 

